Staying power
Celebrate in style, with all the trimmings but none of the chores, at a country house hotel. The party at Pale Hall, on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales, for example, one-time favourite with Queen Victoria, begins with tea beside roaring log fires, followed by a series of hearty meals, cocktails and stunning views of the estate (three nights from £300pp with Sunvil UK (020-8232 9788).
Christmas in the four-star De Vere Hotel in Blackpool is bolder and brassier but a bundle of fun. The package includes the Ice Show at Blackpool Pleasure Beach on Boxing Day before a gala dinner and evening entertainment. Three nights with Superbreak (0990 992993) £275pp full board.
Other hotels where the spirit of Dickens will be getting its annual airing include: The Bath Spa (01225 444424) with champagne reception, optional midnight mass at Bath Abbey, Christmas Day evening buffet with string quartet, tickets for Cinderella panto at the Theatre Royal and a Monte Carlo casino evening (three nights from £695pp full board); Armathwaite Hall in Cumbria , which offers a Buck's Fizz breakfast, Trotters Animal Farm, a black-tie dinner and a candlelit walk around the hotel's extensive grounds (three nights £455pp with Superbreak); The Cadogan Hotel on Sloane Street (020-7235 7141), ideally situated for last-minute London shopping (two nights, £350); and Eastwell Manor (01233 213000) in Kent , where the three-night break includes a car treasure hunt, Dickensian evening, falconry, quiz, dance and a spa (£525 pp).
Useful central hotel booking numbers include: Pride of Britain (01264 324400), Forte (0345 404040); Wolsey Lodges (01473 827500), Virgin Hotels (01642 700767), Swallow Hotels (0870 600 4666), Best Western (01904 695400) and Marriott (0800 221 222).
Country pursuits
If you don't mind the festive chores but would prefer a change of scene in which to perform them, there are any number of heated manors, cottages, castles and farms available for hire in the deepest pockets of Britain's countryside. Country Holidays (01282 445095) maintains that the most requested feature over Christmas is an open fire, preferably with a chimney broad enough for Santa's belly, and an Aga in which to roast the bird. Costs vary: reckon on anything from £300 to £600 a week for a cottage sleeping six. The National Trust (01225 791199) has cottages over the Christmas and the New Year sleeping between two and six people. Also try English Country Cottages (0870 585 1155), Helpful Holidays (01647 433593) and Blakes (01282 445097), or call individual owners listed in the Good Holiday Cottage Guide (Swallow Press, £5.95).
How stylish
Style victims will feel at home in the recently-opened Beau Rivage on the east coast of Mauritius . Good food, good weather and a good soak are guaranteed - extravagant double baths feature in each room. For children there's a Little Mermaid Club, for grown-ups land sports, watersports, a health suite and a gym. Two weeks from December 20 cost £2,987 per adult, £1,482 per child half board including flights. Details: Classic Connection (0870 751 9320).
On ice
The Ice Hotel in Lapland (pictured above) is the world's largest igloo, which melts away in May and is redesigned and re-sculpted every November. Experienced dog-sled rides, snow-scooter safaris, the Absolut Icebar, a spine-tingling open-air sauna, and nights wrapped in reindeer skins upon a carved bed of ice are all part of the package. Two nights B&B cost £549pp, three nights £625 with Thomson Cities (0870 606 1476).
On the beach
Lunn Poly (0870 333 4400) believes that holidays in the sun are selling fast. Among the leftovers available through any of their high-street outlets are the Kaskazi Beach Hotel in Diani Beach in Kenya (two weeks all-inclusive £1,495pp); a week in Thailand split between Bangkok and Pattaya (£1,146pp); and 14 nights on the beach in Goa (£939pp B&B). Closer to home you could book Christmas week in a finca in Lanzarote (Simply Winter Sun, 020-8541 2212), or 10 sunny days in a five-star hotel with health club in Madeira through Cadogan (0870 036 4532).
Snowbound
Families dreaming of a white Christmas should think Ski Esprit (01252 618300), the children's ski specialist that is offering all accompanying grandparents a reduced rate of £250.
Regular prices start at £510 per adult at La Plagne departing December 24 . The price includes a chalet prettied up with tree and paper chains, flights and half-board accommodation, as well as two nights' babysitting (under 18s up to 50% discount, infants under two pay £70).
Further north, you can spend Christmas Day racing through the snow in Norway admiring the view from a torch-lit horse sleigh with Headwater Holidays (01606 813367).
Its cross-country skiing week costs £799 per adult, £426 per child which includes flights, full board, cross country skiing on 160km of marked trails, dog sledding, a traditional Christmas Eve dinner with carols and a visit from Mr Christmas. Ten nights (£949/£519) covers New Year's Eve fireworks, champagne, dinner and dancing.
Afloat
Explore the quiet reaches of the Norfolk Broads by cruiser or several canals by traditional narrowboat. Blakes (01603 739300) has boats sleeping from two to 12 and all have effective heating, some with woodburing stoves for both warmth and atmosphere. From around £120 per person for a week for a boat sleeping between four and six.
Christmas Eve will be celebrated in true Norse style on board Norwegian Coast Voyage's ships, (020-7559 6666, pictured above), which will be leaving Bergen between December 19 and 24. In addition to Christmas dinner, presents, a visit from Santa and Christmas carols, expect a Boxing Day dance and several lectures, including one on Norwegian Christmas and its traditions. A 13-day voyage starts at £940pp including flights, one night's B&B in Bergen and full-board afloat.
Cityslickers
Get back to the root of it all. The legend of Father Christmas, or "Noel Baba", is believed to have begun in Turkey when a 4th-century Christmas bishop, later called St Nicholas, gave anonymous gifts to dowryless village girls. Three nights in the four star Hotel President in the old quarter of Istanbul , with an indoor rooftop pool that looks down on the city's market, palaces and mosques, costs £432pp B&B with Sovereign Cities and Short Breaks (0870 576 8373).
For flights only, browse through the www.cheapflights.com range of worldwide destinations. It currently features Paris from £88pp (before December 31), for example, New York City from £249, and Lyon (a snowball's throw from the French pistes) from £165.
Spot of culture
Why couch down with the latest James Bond when your heart could be singing to Don Giovanni in Prague, La Bohème in Budapest, the Marriage of Figaro in Berlin or Die Zauberflote in Paris? Travel for the Arts (020- 7483 4466) can tailor-make packages to all these destinations including Eurostar seats, B&B hotels and opera tickets. Two nights in Paris, for example, cost from £299. Other city breaks on offer from the operator over Christmas include Chicago, New York City, Vienna, Munich and Barcelona.
Across the Atlantic
Swap olde England for New England, which knows a thing or two about warm inns, comfortable rooms, open hearths with log fires and rustic charm. Osprey Holidays (0870 5605 605) has a wide selection of characterful hotels, romantic country inns and smart resorts, for example the four-star Steamboat Inn in Mystic, Connecticut which has 10 rooms, each with a waterside view, whirlpool bath and fireplace. Flights and car hire for seven days start at £365pp. The Steamboat Inn costs from £51pp per night.
With a theme
Christmas doesn't come with more saccharine than at Disneyland Paris, which is open from 8am to 9pm on the big day itself, and for the whole of Christmas week. For the first time this winter, an Electrical Parade will light up the sky every evening as more than one million light-bulbs twinkle down Main Street on giant floats. That's in addition to a daily musical procession of snowmen and plum puddings. At nightfall, Father Christmas's sleigh, drawn by reindeers from the North Pole, arrives for the tree-lighting ceremony. Between November 11 and January 7, a two-night package staying at the Sequoia Lodge starts at £179 per adult and £41 per child based on two adults and two children sharing a family room, including breakfast, return ferry crossings and unlimited access to the theme park (0870 5030303).
Nature calls
There are not many reindeer but plenty of blue-booted booby birds to be spotted from a porthole on the Beagle III, the historical research motor cruiser which Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions (020-7386 4646) uses to cruise the Galapagos Islands. A cruise glides alongside sea lions, giant turtles, penguins and shoals of tropical fish, and costs from £2,195 (one week), £3,260 (two).
Down Under
While we shiver beneath our Barbours, Down Under they are in their swimmies, enjoying chilled beers on the beach and barbecued turkey thighs. For various New Zealand options call the NZ Tourism Board (09069 101010); for Oz contact the Australian Tourist Commission (020-8780 2229).
On the hoof
"Stuff the Turkey" is a five-day holiday in the southern Peak District for singles who want to forget about the wholebusiness. Indeed, Christmas is not even mentioned, says Old Furnace Walking Holidays (01538 703331). The 25th could be any old Monday, and lunch will be at the pub, as it is the rest of the week. The package (£295pp) includes accommodation, selected meals and daily rambles.
Budget option
Thirty-nine youth hostels in coastal, rural and city locations in England and Wales are open over Christmas, and eight have special seasonal packages. Three nights at the Victorian hostel perched on the hillside above the beautiful "plague village" of Eyam in Derbyshire, for example, costs £99 per adult, £79 for under 18s, and £59 for under-10s. Details: 01727 855215.
Matter of faith
Wherever you are in the world, your hotel will probably manage to rustle up a Christmas lunch, but in non-Christian countries there will be little in the way of razzmatazz for dessert.
For a Christmas virtually untouched by Western influences, Regal Holidays (0870 2201 777) recommends flying to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada in Egypt on December 22 where you can take a three-day Fastrack PADI Open Water learn-to-dive course from December 23-25, which will qualify you to dive almost anywhere in the world. A week at the Hurghada Hilton Villas costs £489pp B&B (diving an extra £240pp).
Further afield, Explore Worldwide (01252 760200) could have you on a Rajasthan Desert Safari (22 days, £1,395); searching for the Bengal Tiger in India (22 days, £1,495); cruising down the Amazon (22 days, £2,935) or gazing at the Angkhor Wat temple in Cambodia on Christmas Day (21 days £1,715). All these beat taking a snooze on the sofa.
